A cooling module of an automobile is configured to include a radiator, a condenser, a fan shroud, an oil cooler, and the like.
The radiator is a device cooling an engine through heat exchange between a coolant and atmosphere.
The condenser is positioned at a front end of an engine room of the automobile and serves to cool a high temperature and high pressure gas refrigerant transferred from a compressor through heat exchange with air to convert the high temperature and high pressure gas refrigerant into a liquid-phase coolant.
The heat exchange of the condenser discharges heat obtained by the evaporator in a vehicle on an air conditioner system to the outside of the vehicle.
The fan shroud is positioned at the rear of the radiator and the condenser, and serves to operate a fan to forcibly pass wind therethrough, thereby maintaining cooling performance of the radiator and the condenser.
The fan shroud includes a fan having a pinwheel shape, a motor rotating the fan, and a shroud serving to support the motor and guide air, and is operated depending on a temperature of a coolant, an operation state of an air conditioner, a pressure of a refrigerant, and the like.
The oil cooler, which is a cooling device appropriately maintaining a temperature of oil including engine oil and mission oil, is divided into an embedded type water cooling oil cooler mounted in a radiator tank and an external type air cooling oil cooler mounted in a carrier, a cooling module, or the like.
The embedded type oil cooler serves to lower a temperature of the oil through heat exchange with a coolant, and the external type oil cooler serves to lower a temperature of the oil through heat exchange with atmosphere.
In addition, the oil cooler is installed with a bypass valve bypassing a low temperature oil so that the low temperature oil is not introduced into the oil cooler to thereby be cooled.
FIG. 1 is a schematic view of an oil cooler according to the related art.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, an oil cooler 1 according to the related art is configured to include a pair of header tanks 10 installed so as to be spaced apart from each other by a predetermined interval in a length direction; tubes 20 having both ends each fixed to the pair of header tanks in the length direction to form channels; heat radiation fins 30 interposed between the tubes; a bypass valve 50 connecting the header tank 10 to an inlet pipe 41 and an outlet pipe 42 in the length direction and bypassing oil transferred from the inlet pipe 41 to the header tank 10 to the outlet pipe 42 when a temperature of the oil is a predetermined temperature or less; and fixing bolts 60 bolting the bypass valve 50 while penetrating through the bypass valve 50 so as to be perpendicular to the length direction.
However, in the related art, a direction in which the fixing bolts are bolted and a direction in which the bypass valve is connected to the header tank are different from each other, such that bolting force of the fixing bolts is significantly decreased due to vibrations generated by oil moving in the bypass valve.
Particularly, in the related art, fatigue is easily accumulated in the fixing bolts to damage the fixing bolts, such that leakage is generated in the bypass valve.
Therefore, development of various oil coolers for solving the above-mentioned problems has been demanded.
As a technology associated with these oil coolers, a heat exchanger including a plug bypass valve has been suggested in U.S. Pat. Appl. Pub. No. 2003-0019620 A1.